Translation Review - The University of Texas at Dallas

Spanished as “Nueva Orleans” (as is North
Carolina [264] / Carolina del Norte [320]) while
the same is not done for Tennessee (Tenesí),
especially given that the name of the state was
first recorded by Spanish explorer Captain Juan
Pardo in the summer of 1567. 37
The chapter headings not only augur but also
encapsulate the nature and breadth of the
translation difficulties to be encountered
throughout the text of the novel. “Chapter IX:
An ambuscado [Murillo: Emboscada] – The
dead Apache – Hollow ground – A gypsum lake
– Trebillones [Murillo: Torbellinos, surmised
from the “dustspouts” and “mindless coils”
described on p. 111] – Snowblind horses
[Murillo: Caballos con ceguera de la nieve; BT:
Horses with snow blindness; the Spanish
language does not easily accommodate
compound words as does English] – The
Delawares return – A probate [Murillo:
Verificación] – The ghost coach – The copper
mines – Squatters [Murillo: Intrusos, rather than
the more explicit but ponderous “ocupantes
ilegales,” which has all the legality but lacks the
threat connoted by transgressing “intruders”] –
A Snakebit horse [Murillo: El caballo mordido
por la serpiente; BT: The horse bit by the snake;
again, the problem represented by compound
words] – The judge on geological evidence
[Murillo: El juez hablando de hechos
geológicos; BT: The judge speaking on
geological facts] – The dead boy – On parallax
and false guidance in things past [Murillo: Sobre
la paralaje y los equívocos a que conducen las
cosas pasadas; BT: On parallax and mistakes to
which things past lead] – The ciboleros” (108);
“Chapter XII: Crossing the border – Storms –
Ice and lightning –The slain Argonauts [Murillo:
Los argonautas asesinados; BT: The
murdered/assassinated argonauts] – The azimuth
– Rendezvous [Murillo: Cita; does not retain the
French, which has become embedded within the
English language code as an English-French
word] – Councils of War [Murillo: Asambleas;
BT: Assemblies] – Slaughter of the Gileños –
Death of Juan Miguel – The dead in the lake
[Murillo: Cadáveres en el lago; BT: Cadavers or
Corpses in the lake, rather than “Muertos,” dead
bodies or the dead; “cadavers” works very well,
and perhaps is more consistent with the gore] –
The chief – An Apache child – On the desert –
Night fires – El virote – A surgery – The judge
takes a scalp – Un hacendado – Gallego –
Ciudad de Chihuahua” (151). Clearly it has
become a necessarily different read in Spanish,
which in no way detracts from Murillo
providing his readers with an excellent,
entertaining, and artfully crafted read, still
uniquely McCarthyesque, as there is no writing
quite like that of Meridiano de sangre within the
Spanish tradition, just as occurs with Blood
Meridian within American literature. But in
Spanish, McCarthy is no longer McCarthy as we
once knew him in English — he is less and at
the same time more, the same yet
heteromorphic.
Nicknames and surnames in the SLT novel
represent an interesting translation problem to
be addressed (or circumvented) with
consistency. One of the protagonists, the “kid”
from Tennessee, distinctively spelled in small
case letters in Blood Meridian, has many options
in Spanish: niño, chico, muchacho, joven, rapaz,
mozo, mozuelo, párvulo, chaval. Murillo settles
on the latter, a ready transculturation with a
fitting colloquial ring in Spanish. He does not
translate or transculturate surnames such as
Toadvine (124), which would be like the
absurdity of pretending to translate González or
García into English, or nicknames such as
Bathcat and Grannyrat (Meridiano 124–125).
But he does so with other nicknames both for
characters and rifles: Brassteeth is refit oddly as
Dientes de Bronce (99: Bronze Teeth rather than
the brass in Dientes de Latón, an unusual
oversight by Murillo?); Sweetlips becomes the
literally coined compound word “Dulceslabios”;
and Hark From The Tombs is rendered as
“Oídme desde la Tumba” (Meridiano 155). Lost
by not coining nicknames in Spanish for Bathcat
and Grannyrat are the images evoked by the
English words, “a cat in or averse to a bath”
(cats are known for avoiding water, which
connotes the dubious hygiene of this particular
character) and perhaps “little ol’ granny with a
face like a rat.” 38 But when read simply as is —
52 Translation Review